P2 Greenhouse effect, carbon cycle and climate change

Hi
I'm a student teacher and i'm struggling to come up with fun activites for the P2 module of 21st Century. for those who know this module i'm up to lesson 8 x-ray safety, so i still have to cover greenhouse effect, carbon cycle and climate change. I'm struggling with the workload and so have stuck mainly to the lesson ideas given by 21st C but i want to make my lessons more fun and active. Anyone got any idea's on activites for these topics? I struggle to come up with ideas sometimes. i get a mental block so any ideas, suggestions would be great.
sarah

I had exactly the same trouble a few weeks ago (see ideas on teaching global warming post) A lot of people gave me some really fab advice which worked well. The upd8 link was very good and resulted in a sucessful lesson on resources and following someone else's advice I produced some resources to do a marketplace lesson on global warming which I have now used sucessfully with a top set Y10 class and a very 'active' middle set Y10 classes.

Let me in on the secret please ...... what exactly is a 'marketplace lesson'?
I have more or less covered this topic now, for this year, but have found it tedious, dull, uninspiring and very low on any real Physics content that is accessible or interesting to the pupils. I vowed, last year, to try to do better this time round but have failed - a fact confirmed to me when I see the pupils glancing at thier watches in class.
In fact, for all of P1, P2, P3 we struggle to find experiments and practicals that the whole class can get involved in on a regular basis. Such a shame, they get 'switched off' by all this stuff when Physics lessons could be such a fun way to explore, find out & test the world around them.
I would replace it all with a more hands-on year of 'applied' physics which would include things like: moments and latent heat where pupils can do experiments, the maths is straight forward and there are lots of examples of how we use the principles in every day life.
Don't even get me started on the culturally biased, often ambiguous exam questions that have minimal physics content.
Ok. Rant over.

Let me in on the secret please ...... what exactly is a 'marketplace lesson'?

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</font><font size="2">It was suggested by one of the respondents on the thread I started about global warming https://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/386007.aspx The idea comes from the book 'The Teacher's Toolkit', which has some great ideas for fun activities-especially for dry topics like this. </font><font size="2">It has to be run using v strict timings but worked very well as it is so structured. The theory is that you display a short test on the board and give the pupils 1 minute to memorise as many questions as possible (they are not allowed to write them down). You then spilt them into groups of 3 and give them a huge piece of paper, a different colour pen each and some information. You can have more than 1 of each group, but have about 4-5 sets of different information. Each group has the information to answer only a few questions but between the whole class they can get all the answers. After 15 minutes of making notes on their info, one group member stays behind and the others go out for 15 mins to get information from other groups. They then have 10 mins to teach the group member who stayed behind. They then put all resources and information away and have a short test as a plenary (with prizes to make it a bit more competitive). Hope that makes sense.</font> <font size="2">Don't get me started on having to teach global warming in almost every damn subject in the curriculum, but this did help me to make the best of a bad and v boring situation. </font>
<font size="2">I can send the powerpoint and info I used, but be aware that I am a chem teacher, so it may need some adjusting. </font>

When I do markekplace I do a slightly different version. Paul Ginnis did it more this way with us at a workshop (btw if you get a chance to go to one of his workshops, do, they are really inspiring).
In addition to the subject specific out comes, these are the other outcomes (sorry, not sure what the current buzz words are to call these skills)
Learning to Learn (L2L): To develop working skills of thinking, time management, independence and interdependence and communication skills of listening, speaking and reading

1. Show the questions that are covered by the info you are to give them.
2. You need the information divided into 3 or 4 diff sections. Give the different sections to a group with the same number of pupils as number of sections (3 sections = 3 in a group). Make sure the class knows what the sections are (put titles on the board) for later.In a class you will have several repetitions of the groups with the same info. But that is good. See below
3. Preparation stage: The group makes a poster (A3) on the information. I use the 10 word max rule: they are only allowed 10 recognisable words (including "by Tom, Dick and 'Arry" = 5 words). However, they are allowed unlimited numbers of symbols, pictures, cartoons, diagrams, numbers. The idea behind this is that the transformation of the information from one format (usually text) to another (e.g. pictures) forces them to process the information (how can I represent that in a different way). It makes them think more about it and the more they think the more likely it is to stick in their brain. Once over the inital shock, they adapt quite readily to this idea. You can also use it on powerrpoint slides to stop them mindlessly copying text. You really don't want to give them too long with this - I use 10 mins. If you have more information in the section than they could, at a reasonable pace, put on a poster in 10 mins, you probably have too much information for them to take in. By keeping the timing down to 10 mins, you are also teaching them about time management. Encourage them to start quickly, DON'T waste time doing fancy words or colouring in (grrrr...), and to organise themselves with maybe two of the group reading the information and telling the third person what to draw on the poster. While you are going around at this time, get them to decide who is going to stay with the poster to teach others, the 'stallholder', and who is going to the other groups- and which group which pupil is going to so that they don't waste time later.They are the 'researchers'.
4. Market place: Give them 5 mins or upto 8 mins if you have a lot of info or a large class with lots of repetition of the groups. The researchers go to all the posters that cover their section. They must take notes of what they find out. If they do not understand from one poster they must go to another. Encourage them to ask questions. This stage can be quite noisey. The stallholder stays with the poster and has to teach anyone who comes by. The stallholder can use the info sheet to help them, but must only show the poster they made. Do not allow too long for this as they will end up standing around chatting if they think they have finished.
5. Teaching; They then go back to their groups. Allow 2-2.5 mins for each researcher to teach the other two (or three) in the group. All the timings in this activity are deliberately kept short to encourage concentrated effort and not to waste time.
6. quiz: give it under test conditions - no notes or posters allowed. If you like you can show the quiz questions to the groups for the last part of the preparation stage so they can make sure they cover the necessary work in their posters.
7. This is the bit you didn't tell them about. At the end of the quiz. tell them to compare answers in their groups and come up with a set of group answers . This gives them the opportunity for some more teaching!

All the time you need to be constantly urging them on, and calling out how much time they have left. A countdown clock on the whiteboard/projector is good. Apart from initially preparing the resources you don't have to do much. Try it several times as you will need to learn to judge your classes and the times needed for your resources. They also get better at it the more they do it.
It can also be used to revise topics very successfully.
I have uploaded a powerpoint template for marketplace here https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6038809&requestAction=update

It is! Especially with rather dull and dry topics (like global warming), which otherwise would mainly be copying info out of books or off board and would bore me and the kids to tears.
Also LOVE quick on the draw. That could also be run with this topic to liven it up. Having a sheet to fill in helps to consolidate and gives a recored for revision. It is amazing the reaction this acitvity has with even the least bothered 15/16 year olds.

There is no way of making the Greenhouse effect, global warmig, climate change exciting. It just isn't! beleive me. Just tell them they are all gonna die unless they wear sandals, eat leaves and buy a bicycle!